New Battery Drained!

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by debit

I installed a voltage meter next to my switches at the door.
This helps me monitor the battery.
Not mentioned earlier is the heater that is in the door of your frig.
When you open the door, it turns on and uses power.

............
Ram2500 /Surveyor 251RKS

Voltmeters use battery power to work and also add constant drain.

Always use a push button in an installed system to only use power when you want to know the voltage.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Heymirth

I used the pop up in my driveway for 48 hours. Plugged into my garage 110 Then back into the garage for storage for 4 weeks.
Came out to a dead battery yesterday.

If you ran the battery down, plugging in for a few hours will not replace all the power you used. It can take overnight (or even several overnights) with everything turned off to recharge a low (or very low - dead) battery.

[ScottBrownstein]

You probably put it into storage with a minimally charged battery. Herk is right. Too bad they don't charge as fast as we discharge them, but even a great, high amperage converter can easily take more than 24 hours to recharge a dead battery.

In addition, even if it were fully charged when it went into storage, without a good disconnect strategy, 4 weeks is plenty of time to kill it again.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by ScottBrownstein

You probably put it into storage with a minimally charged battery. Herk is right. Too bad they don't charge as fast as we discharge them, but even a great, high amperage converter can easily take more than 24 hours to recharge a dead battery.

In addition, even if it were fully charged when it went into storage, without a good disconnect strategy, 4 weeks is plenty of time to kill it again.

The chart is correct "for each boost phase" BUT you can't stay in boost.

The converter in your camper stays in boost till 50% charged; then switches to "absorption" (NORMAL in the chart) till 90% full; then to "float" (STORAGE in the chart) to get the last 100%. This is done so the higher voltage and current do not boil your battery dry.

So you can see it can take 100 hours to charge to 100% using the camper's converter.

Follow the Boost to 50%; cross over to the Normal, then follow that curve to 90%; then cross to Storage, then follow that to 100%.

Like gears in a transmission to avoid blowing up the engine.

[ScottBrownstein]

Absolutely correct. Chart is just for reference and frankly I don't know why they put a 20 hour boost cycle on it when virtually no converter (or battery for that matter) will do that for the reasons you stated.

The 13.6 volt cycle is more reasonable.

Probably should have mentioned that! Thanks

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by ScottBrownstein

Absolutely correct. Chart is just for reference and frankly I don't know why they put a 20 hour boost cycle on it when virtually no converter (or battery for that matter) will do that for the reasons you stated.

The 13.6 volt cycle is more reasonable.

Probably should have mentioned that! Thanks

Boost gets a dead battery back in action quickly, but it won't last very long either.

Like putting a gallon of gas in a car and saying," See! the engine starts!"
Maybe you make the gas station; maybe not.

[Heymirth]

Does plugged into Shore power save the battery power????

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Heymirth

Does plugged into Shore power save the battery power????

I am not sure what you are asking.

When plugged into shore power, the converter provides all the 12 volt DC your trailer needs and the excess is used to charge and maintain the battery.

[SidecarFlip]

Originally Posted by Heymirth

Does plugged into Shore power save the battery power????

That is a 2 sided question. If the battery is charged, shore power will keep it charged but if it's flat, like is stated above, takes a long time to recharge it..but.........

Anytime you discharge a flooded cell battery (or AGM) below 50% charge, the life of the battery is severely shortened because conventional batteries (AGM included) gas off below 50% charge and they also begin to deposit lead sulfate on the plates, eventually shorting them (which is why a battery dies.)

Conventional batteries should NEVER BE DISCHARGED BELOW 50% CAPACITY.

There are batteries on the market that can be discharged below 50% without harm, they can actually be discharged to nothing without harm, but unless you arr flush, you don't want to consider one. Retail is about $800 bucks for one comparable to your less than 100 buck conventional battery and if you respect the flooded cell parameters (no discharge below 50% and check the electrolyte level, your conventional battery will last a good while.

When I'm not using my camper, it stays shore powered and that includes winter time as well. I do check the electrolyte level every month in the batteries (I have more than one).

You cannot go away and forget about your camper for months on end and expect the batteries to stay charged. Even with no parasitic draws, conventional batteries will self discharge all by themselves.

[Skyliner]

All the OP needs is a nice battery disconnect switch.

[SidecarFlip]

11 bucks at Autozone

[Heymirth]

I just bought a Battery disconnect switch , I just need to learn how to wire it up. I'll you tube it. The instructions that came with it stink.

[A32Deuce]

A wire from the battery to the cutoff and other side to the coach. You can do pos. or neg. for cut off.